Last week in class, when talking about consequences and choices, I stressed the need to be willing to follow through when giving a child a consequence. I goofed this weekend. On Saturday the kids were all given their daily list of chores at 9am with the announcement that we would need to leave for church at 3:30. We have done this long enough that the kids knew that meant that chores had to be done by then. Normally, this would not be an issue. Normally, if the chores weren’t done, the kids would go to church with us, but then they would return to finish chores while the rest of the family did some “super cool” family activity.
Saturday night, however, we had plans for a fun Valentine’s evening with my family–aunts and uncles without kids who don’t understand kids missing activities as a consequence for their actions. We were stuck. Furthermore, my in-laws were coming for brunch Sunday morning, which meant someone was going to have to clean the house before they arrived. I was really stuck.
At 1pm, it became clear to me that two of the three kids had no intention of getting their work done. At the very least, they weren’t going to get anything done by the 3:30 deadline. I stressed. I had given a deadline I couldn’t enforce and couldn’t work with and they knew it. Ugh! My wise and much calmer husband suggested a technique I hadn’t needed in quite a while, but that is one of my favorites to recommend to others because it is so effective. The Energy Drain. And so even though I had to run around cleaning at the last minute on Saturday, I am comforted by the fact that the real consequence will come today - a school holiday, when I really don’t have the energy to bake cookies, play games, watch movies or do other fun things with my two errant souls. Luckily for all of us, there is one kid who got chores done and has been a joy to be around the past few days. I thinking it will be a great day for the two of us! I’ll let you know!